If, like me, your pants are a bit too snug after the season of indulgence, you may want to consider these weight loss insights and hacks from recent studies published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.
Of course the only true equation for weight loss is healthy eating plus regular exercise. Still, having a few extra tricks up your sleeve can't hurt, right?
Wasn't Carrie Fisher amazing in the original Star Wars? Well, time has ticked on, yet for some reason audiences seem surprised at the fact that she doesn't look like she did circa 1983. You know what? Neither do I, mostly because it was 30 years ago!
Neither does Han Solo (aka Harrison Ford) for that matter, yet no one is publicly condemning him for not using the Force to singlehandedly stop the aging process.
Carrie Fisher's return to the silver screen hasn't been so serendipitous, with the actor and writer facing criticism for "not aging well" in The Force Awakens.
Thankfully 59 year-old Fisher is not made of delicate stuff. I've had a sweet spot for her ever since watching her standup show, Wishful Drinking, in which she talked about her crazy life with incredible wit, candour and self-deprecation.
To her latest critics, she gave the following funny and thoughtful response, proving that wisdom does in fact come with age:
“Please stop debating about whether or not I aged well,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, it hurts all three of my feelings. My body hasn’t aged as well as I have. Blow us.”
“Youth and beauty are not accomplishments, they’re the temporary happy by-products of time and/or DNA. Don’t hold your breath for either.”
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Printer-friendly versionYouth&BeautyR/NOT ACCOMPLISHMENTS,theyre theTEMPORARY happy/BiProducts/of Time&/or DNA/Dont Hold yourBreath4either/ifUmust holdAir/takeGarys
— Carrie Fisher (@carrieffisher) December 30, 2015
Fisher was pressed to lose a whole lot of weight for the role, which is one thing if getting ultra fit helps her perform action scenes - quite another if it's just an attempt to get her closer to the svelte Leia likeness of her youth.
Critics shot back, saying negative comments are par for the course for celebrities and public figures. And she should just take it like, er... a man? She and other pretty actresses should suck it up and be "grateful" they got a chance to be in movies in the first place. Fisher may have got the break for being young and attractive - because that's what the industry wants, not because that's all she's capable of.
So by all means, slam her acting. Slam the movie if you want. But slamming how she looks is not par for the course. It's not even on the table. Criticizing her appearance is not only ignorant and immature, it's also grossly irrelevant to how she does her job.
Image Source: Disney/LucasFilm
Hoverboards or segways may have topped wish lists this past holiday season, yet are they really fit for consumer consumption? That's the question we should be asking after continued reports of the boards spontaneously combusting.
A mall in Texas was recently evacuated after a board blew up at a kiosk.
"We heard what we thought was a bomb," said one witness.
A mall worker put out the fire with an extinguisher, yet the smoke pushed everyone outdoors and caused officials to clear out all hoverboard stock.
The trouble apparently lies with the ion batteries. After numerous fires and injuries reported in the U.S., consumers have been warned not to leave the boards unattended while charging.
Amazon has issued new safety standards, restricting the boards currently sold on its site.
The self-balancing scooters are undoubtedly cool. They look like a prediction come true from Back to the Future. They cost upwards of $400, but that hasn't slowed their popularity with the young and the young at heart alike. Parents who supposedly bought them for their kids enjoyed making fools of themselves, posting videos to social media of themselves in various states of falling off.
Then there was the Filipino priest who made quite the entrance to mass by rolling up the aisle on a hoverboard. His congregation applauded rapturously, but that viral daring do saw him suspended from his position in the Catholic Church.
Even celebrities are fans. Russell Crowe lashed out at Virgin Airlines after his family was denied boarding for carrying hoverboards. Crowe, none too impressed and possibly oblivious to the dangers of hoverboards, went on to slam Virgin on Twitter:
Ridiculous @VirginAustralia. No Segway boards as luggage? Too late to tell us at airport.Kids and I offloaded. Goodbye Virgin. Never again.
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) December 29, 2015
However, Virgin isn't the only airline to ban hoverboards from carry-on and checked luggage. Air Canada, WestJet and three major U.S. airlines have done the same after fires broke out on board.
Have fun - just remember to keep the fire extinguisher handy.